Hey Berries!
I decided I needed some opinions on this matter:
A lot of the family names that I would wish to use for future children include sounds that I can’t properly say due to my speech impediment.
(I have trouble saying ch- , sh- and j- or soft g sounds)
I have always avoided letting myself love certain names if they have these sounds in them. Recently I have been wondering if whether or not I should use certain family names that I love AND have meaning to me despite this.
(The family names are [name_m]Charles[/name_m], [name_u]Jean[/name_u] and [name_m]Archie[/name_m], not to mention the non-family names I have had to give up loving over the years:()
The way I attempt to say the ch- and j- sounds ends up slurring the names a bit and can be confused with other sounds. It’s not obvious to me, and people close to me get used to it, but the speech impediment is definitely there.
So my question is, if I can’t properly say the names, is it a bad idea to use them anyways?
Thanks ahead of time.
Anyone had a similar situation? I have not met many people who have my kind of speech impediment.
I don’t have the same speech impediment as you (from your explanation), but from the sound of it we do have a decently similar situation. I have a pretty strong stutter that comes and goes multiple times a day. My worst syllable is also the “J” of soft G sound and names like [name_u]James[/name_u], [name_m]George[/name_m] and [name_u]Jay[/name_u]-Anything comes off as “Ju…ju…juhh… [name_u]James[/name_u]!” [name_m]Even[/name_m] with that being the worst, [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] with it’s 4 long syllables often sounds like a 10 syllable name . . . Uh-[name_m]Al[/name_m]-aleh-alex-[name_m]Alexander[/name_m]!
That being said, I don’t think I would ever consider not using [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] or [name_u]James[/name_u] (or any other tricky name for that matter). Everyone around me has gotten used to my stutter and even is completely used to the 10 second pauses I have to take every couple sentences to form/practice the words correctly in my head before speaking them out loud. As you mentioned all the people around you are used to it, so a child will become used to it too. I obviously don’t know the extent of the speech impediment, but if the people around you can all understand you then there shouldn’t be an issue! [name_m]Even[/name_m] if you pronounce [name_m]Charles[/name_m] SLIGHTLY differently than other family members, baby [name_m]Charles[/name_m] will still understand (I don’t see it as any different than having two parents with two different accents).
Now, the only way I would advice you NOT to use a name that causes pronunciation issues is if you really do feel insecure about it. You don’t want to think “my gosh I’m butchering this name” every time you say [name_m]Archie[/name_m]. You want to think “gosh I love baby [name_m]Archie[/name_m] and his great honoring name!” If you and all your close family and friends can get passed it (which I’m sure you can!) then please don’t think you shouldn’t use it.
I don’t have a speech impediment. However, I have worked with and want to adopt children with Down syndrome, who tend to have difficulties with articulate verbal communication. If I knew I was having a child with speech challenges, I would definitely take that into account when choosing their name. It makes sense to do the same if the impediment is your own. That said, if you love these names, just use them – or maybe get creative and look for easier to pronounce variations.
I don’t think you should have to eliminate every name with a difficult sound from your list completely, but I think it is something you are right to be aware of. Especially with the honoring names though, I see nothing wrong with using any of them in the middle spot. =]